You are here

Editorial: Out-Of-County Retreat Bad Business For Directors

The Fort Smith Board of Directors has decided to make a retreat to Mount Magazine State Park next month to discuss the city’s business.

It would seem members of the board have once more decided that their preference is more important than the convenience of the citizens of Fort Smith.

Actually, that’s putting a good face on it. Were we inclined to be cynical, we would say that board members are looking for an opportunity to get out of town and discuss the people’s business far away from the people.

This retreat is not illegal. But it is inappropriate.

The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act states that, but for some specific exceptions, “all meetings, formal or informal, special or regular, of the governing bodies of all municipalities, counties, townships and school districts, and all boards, bureaus, commissions or organizations of the State of Arkansas except grand juries, supported wholly or in part by public funds or expending public funds, shall be public meetings.”

That means the public must be able to attend them.

Admittedly, the act doesn’t say the meetings should be convenient for people. So board members will make an overnight trip out of the county at taxpayer expense to stay at scenic Mount Magazine from 6 p.m. July 19 to 5 p.m. July 20.

Many organizations, nonprofits and businesses have planning retreats. They get away from the usual surroundings and tackle issues that are bigger than single agenda items. Members interact, they discuss and maybe quarrel, they share a couple of meals and maybe an adult beverage, and they set their priorities for the future.

Being in pleasant surroundings is said to facilitate these interactions, as “getting away from it all” is likewise said to do.

Why shouldn’t the Fort Smith Board of Directors do what these other groups do?

Because they are not an organization, a nonprofit or a corporation. They are the governing body of a municipality, elected by the residents of that municipality to conduct their business. And, according to the state of Arkansas, those residents have the right to watch their elected officials conduct that business.

By announcing this retreat, the city has met its FOIA requirements. News media, the people’s representatives, will send reporters to observe the meetings of this event. But there is extra travel expense involved, and it is not likely the people’s representatives will spend the night at the lodge.

That means if Director A and Director B like to sit up late chatting, they probably will do it without observation. If Director C and Director D like to rise early and drink their coffee on the wide patio overlooking the beautiful Arkansas River Valley, they will be able to discuss whatever thoughts come to them unmolested by eavesdropping members of the public or media.

Perhaps during those conversations, they will not discuss the city’s business or any item that might later come before them for a vote. Indeed, state law requires them to avoid those topics. But city business is what the directors have most clearly in common, and human nature suggests that city issues will come up.

Indeed, we don’t know why Directors E, F and G feel comfortable with these alliance-building sub-committee meetings, but we can’t speak to that.

What we can speak to are the handful of Fort Smith residents who attend nearly every meeting of the board and the dozen or so more who attend often enough to be called regulars even if they don’t win perfect-attendance awards. They have made a commitment to being involved in their city’s governance.

We do not think many of them will be making the trip to Mount Magazine.

The legislative intent of the FOIA is stated this way: “It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that the electors shall be advised of the performance of public officials and of the decisions that are reached in public activity and in making public policy.”

We don’t think a 23-hour retreat at Mount Magazine, no matter how correctly announced, really lends itself to observing the performance of public officials or the way they make public policy.

Fort Smith has plenty of meeting space — albeit without the awe-inspiring Logan County views — where directors could conduct their business and the members of the public who were so inclined could observe them. The directors would have the added comfort of a night’s sleep in their own beds.